Denver County judges are knowingly violating state laws in setting bond in misdemeanor cases and wrongfully denying defendants’ requests to argue for lower bail, according to claims against the county.

The Colorado public defender’s office filed three lawsuits against Denver County Courts in June alleging that judges abused their power by denying defendants fair and timely hearings on bail. Attorneys and experts say failure by judges to set appropriate bond leaves low-level offenders in crowded jails days longer than necessary and unfairly targets and punishes people who are still presumed to be innocent.

“It reeks of injustice,” said Iris Eytan, who has signed on as co-counsel in two of the three cases.

Eytan said reforms to Colorado laws in 2013 were designed to help avoid unfair punishments that bail can place on the indigent and mentally ill.

“These are people who usually have mental illness, were wrongfully arrested or are of a race other than white,” Eytan said. “Unfortunately, it’s those individuals who are jamming up our jail system for seven to 10 days until a judge looks at a probable cause statement and gives them a personal recognizance bond.”

The lawsuits name Denver County magistrates Catherine Cary and Howard Slavin.

According to the complaints, the two judges determined the defendants’ bail in private chambers and failed to follow state laws requiring them to consider individual characteristics of each defendant. The judges then relied on an inaccurate interpretation of the Crime Victims’ Rights Act to deny attorneys an opportunity to seek lower bail, the complaints say.

Denver County Courts declined to comment, and the Denver city attorney’s office did not return calls from The Denver Post.

The city attorney’s office filed motions to dismiss all three cases, claiming the offenders can appeal the issue and magistrates do not have the ability to hold bail-review hearings.

Public defenders represented all three men connected to the lawsuits. All three men were arrested in May in domestic-abuse cases.

According to a probable cause statement, Juan Castorena-Loera, 44, was arrested after police say he threw a plastic pitcher full of juice at his wife of 18 years. The container struck her in the head, resulting in stitches.

In November, Kelly Fredrick, 31, was arrested after being accused of hitting and choking his wife and shoving his mother-in-law, according to an arrest warrant.

Donald Mares, 21, was arrested for allegedly pushing his girlfriend down, trying to lock her in a bathroom and “snatching” the woman’s baby to keep her from leaving, according to a probable cause statement.

Castorena-Loera and Fredrick each pleaded guilty to one count of misdemeanor assault. Mares pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of false imprisonment.

The lawsuits are not seeking damages from the court. Instead, they are asking a state judge to find that the county judges’ actions were flawed, which could change how judges determine bond in all criminal cases in Denver County Court.

According to hearing transcripts, both judges declined to explain how they set bail at $1,500 for each defendant. During one hearing, Slavin told the public defender that he set bail “a few minutes ago in chambers” but refused to explain how he arrived at the figure.

“I’m not subject to cross-examination,” Slavin said during the hearing.

Reformed bond laws now require courts to consider defendants individually — including their criminal history, risk analysis and financial circumstances — and release them, when possible, with the least restrictive conditions. Defendants who are considered a risk to the community may be denied bail.

Judges are not supposed to set bail based solely on the type of charge.

In May, reports with bond recommendations were prepared and provided to the judges before they set the three defendants’ bail in chambers. Reports for all three defendants did not suggest bail and found all three men were eligible for unsecured personal-recognizance bonds.

But each man was held on a $1,500 bail. The same amount was recommended by a Denver County Court document that lists bond amounts next to different charges. The document was entered as evidence with the complaints.

“Under Colorado’s new law, the presumption is pretrial release, and pretrial detention is supposed to be the exception,” said Mark Silverstein, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado. “It should drastically reduce the number of pretrial detainees held in county jail, and it should drastically reduce the number of pretrial detainees who are in jail solely because they are too poor to post money as a condition of their release.”

Currently, pretrial detainees — people waiting for their day in court — make up 60 percent of all inmates in Denver’s two jails.

Denver Sheriff Elias Diggins, who did not speak specifically to the lawsuits, said the jail population ebbs and flows near capacity every year. Crowding makes it difficult to house inmates with those facing the same level charge.

Affordable and appropriate bail is an important part of keeping people who do not need to be in jail out of it, Diggins said.

“Providing different opportunities to have folks be able not to be in custody is something that we should all focus on — whether that is diversion from jail because of mental health or an addiction issue or an economic disadvantage,” Diggins said. “There is a bigger picture to fixing our justice system.”

Mares was the only defendant able to post his $1,500 bail after the judge declined to hear arguments to lower it. Castorena-Loera and Fredrick spent a combined 12 days in jail — a $660 tab for the sheriff’s department.

Cary declined to hear arguments on bond in Castorena-Loera’s case because doing so, she found, would violate the Victims’ Rights Act. Under the state law, unless it is a defendant’s first appearance, prosecutors or the court must notify victims of a crime before attorneys ask to change bond conditions.

Defense attorneys in May argued the hearing was a first appearance and claimed Castorena-Loera could not be punished for prosecutors’ failure to notify the victims. Castorena-Loera was released seven days later on a personal-recognizance bond.

In the other two cases, the judge declined to hear attorneys’ requests to modify the bonds because the victims had not been notified. In those two cases, victims were in the courtroom, aware of the hearing or in agreement with the request to lower bail, according to the complaint.

All three civil cases are ongoing.

In November, Stern granted a joint request for an extension to file replies in Castorena-Loera and Mares’ cases. Public defenders are meeting with Denver County Presiding Judge John Marcucci and a representative from the Denver district attorney’s office in an attempt to resolve the issue before the Feb. 28 deadline.

The public defender’s office filed an opening brief in Fredrick’s case, which is scheduled to be reviewed Jan. 28.

Jordan Steffen was the legal affairs reporter for The Denver Post. She left the organization in June 2016 after joining in January 2011. Her past coverage areas included breaking news, child welfare, the western suburbs and crime. She was raised in the Colorado mountains and graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder.

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